


Three Years Later

by triptolemos



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
Genre: 3 years after the war with Gaea, HoH spoilers, Hurt!Nico, M/M, Unrequited Love, older!Nico
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-11-03
Updated: 2013-11-24
Packaged: 2017-12-31 09:26:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,233
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1030038
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/triptolemos/pseuds/triptolemos
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nico had't been at camp for a long time. Not since the war with Gaea, in fact, which had been nearly three years ago. He'd just sort of disappeared about a week after everything was over. Hadn't been years from since.<br/></p>
<p>
Which is why it came as a huge surprise to everyone when he showed up in the middle of the night, barely able to stand. 

(Rated M for later chapters)<br/>
(Mostly Percico by the way)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

It was Chiron that found him, close to the borders, and took him to the infirmary, where he stayed for nearly three days.  


People wondered about the mysterious supposed halfblood who'd showed up injured in the middle of the night. It was tried to be kept low key, but it was a small camp, so word got out. No one was allowed to see him, though. In fact, hardly anyone at all saw him until the third day.  


A lot of whispering went on at breakfast that morning, and glances in the direction of the Hades cabin table, where the newcomer sat.  


It wasn't until Percy Jackson entered the dining pavilion that he was recognized.  


"Nico?" he called out, surprise, disbelief, and then relief flashing across his face.  


Nico looked a lot different than he had the last time Percy had seen him; for one thing he was taller; his face harder, too—more defined, and he'd finally gotten himself a haircut, (Percy was informed later that that particular style was called an "undercut", which made sense seeing as it was cut underneath the top near his neck and left sort of shaggy from the middle of his head up). He was still thin, not but unhealthily so. He still didn't seem to eat much, however, because the only thing on his plate was a small bunch of grapes, which he stared at dismally.  


When he heard Percy call out, he looked up, and then it was unmistakable that this was, in fact, Nico di Angelo. His eyes looked tired, Percy noted, as though he'd been having trouble with sleep.  


He didn't smile. He just sort of looked at Percy, who was standing right in front of him now, unsure of what exactly he should say. He's happy to see that Nico's alive and somewhat well, but for some reason he feels like Nico isn't really happy to see him.  


Percy opened his mouth to speak, (no doubt to say something really smart, like, "hi."), but no words came out, so he just continued to stand there, and it seemed like Nico was perfectly content with letting him do so.  


Thankfully, Jason and Piper were now at the pavilion and had just spotted Percy and Nico.  


"Hey!" Jason called, jogging over. "You're back!" He sounded surprised; a little more than he should have been, in fact, especially when he glanced at Percy and then back at Nico.  


Nico stood, then, though a little unsteadily, Percy noted with a touch of concern. He seemed to be favoring his right leg as he brought himself to his full height.  


When he did so, Percy had to blink. Nico was nearly as tall as Percy, now. He looked older, too, like he'd grown into himself. He still wore the same type of clothes; a black shirt over ripped black jeans, but he must have outgrown his aviator jacket, or else somehow otherwise lost it, because it was no where in sight.  


When he stretched his arms over his head, a little patch of skin showed just above his waistline and Percy couldn't help but think, "Damn, when did this kid get so _ripped_?" Then he shook himself, wondering where that had come from.  


"It seems I am," Nico was saying in reply to Jason, which confused Percy into a bit of a blush for a second before the older halfblood composed himself.  


"Well… er, what brings you back?" Jason asked, no doubt attempting to make conversation.  
Nico gestured to his leg; the left one, the one that was hurt. "Gryphon attack. I was close by… so…" He shrugged.  


At this, Piper cut in, "Gryphon attack? And you got here… what, three days ago? I was on watch that night, and I didn't see anything like that."  


"Well, I say close by," Nico replied, frowning a little and counting to himself on his fingers. Percy had to make himself focus on Nico's face instead of his hands, but he still noticed when he stopped at six.  


"It was about… ten miles out, I think. Maybe twelve. Not too far," Nico decided, saying it like it was no big deal.  


"Not too far?" Percy exclaimed. "You made it all the way here that far with a bad leg?"  
He'd meant it with concern, of course, but Nico looked at him like he'd just punched his figurative grandmother. Or real grandmother. Or maybe even both.  


"I managed," the son of Hades clipped, continuing to glare. _Oh yeah, definitely both_ , Percy thought, somewhat hurt. Why did Nico hate him so much still, after all these years?  


There was a tense silence before Jason cleared his throat. "Um, well, glad you're alright, then… how long are you going to stay?" he asked, trying to clear up the tension before someone got strangled.  


Nico turned his attention to Jason. He didn't seem happy about the interruption, but he wasn't hateful, and Percy noted with a touch of jealousy in the pit of his stomach that Nico seemed to like Jason more than him. Where did that come from?  


"Hopefully not long," Nico said. "I've just got to wait until this thing heals…" He gestured down at his leg again, a bitter expression on his face. He didn't look very happy about the thing, poor guy.  


"Well, hopefully you'll stay for another few weeks. Hazel and Frank are coming in from New Rome tomorrow, you know. She'll be happy to see you," Piper said to him.  


Nico nodded a few times, a bit of a smile on his lips. "Yeah," he said.  


There was a brief silence before he cleared his throat. "I'm going to head back to the infirmary," he decided. "They wanted to check on… you know…" He started to walk, flinching a little as he put pressure on his bad leg.  


"Do you need any help?" Percy offered before he could stop himself. "With your leg, I mean… I can help you walk—"  


But Nico cut him off, quite ferociously. "No," he snarled. "I don't need any help."  


And then Percy watched him limp off, confused and a little injured himself. He looked at Jason and Piper with a frown, "What did I do?" he asked hopelessly.  


Jason shrugged, but Percy could tell he was holding back something. Piper just sighed.


	2. Chapter 2

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. However, when Hazel and Frank arrived the next morning, things got quite interesting.  


It took a few minutes for Hazel to notice Nico, as he was standing off to the side, but when she did it was quite interesting, indeed.  


"Nico?" she said, walking over to him with an almost awestruck expression. He smiled tentatively, and with a bit of guilt. He probably should have Iris messaged her; at least once.  


Hazel stared at him for a few seconds before she threw her arms around him, and he could tell she was crying by the way she breathed.  
Nico wasn't used to being hugged, so it took him a few seconds to reciprocate, albeit a little uncomfortably. Immediately when he did so Hazel pulled away and slapped him right in the face. Hard. Nico tensed, but otherwise did nothing.  


"Three years," Hazel fumed. "Three years. Not a word. Not a single word—I was worried sick, Nico, I thought you were dead!"  


Percy and the others watched silently. Most of them had had those same fears; after Nico had disappeared they'd looked for him for months before finally giving up.  


Percy, all the same, was a little surprised that not even Hazel had gotten word from her brother.  


Nico sighed, rubbing the red mark she'd left on his cheek. "I'm sorry," he said, "I was in the Underworld. There was a lot of chaos down there and Dad needed me to… to…" His voice trailed off and he stopped rubbing his cheek to frown. His eyes went to Hazel's hand.  


"You're… you got married?" he asked, looking from her to Frank and back again.  


Hazel, despite things, blushed. "Last summer," she said.  


"Oh," Nico said, his eyes now flicking to Percy, and then to Annabeth. "Well, I'm really happy for you," he said faintly, turning back to Hazel with a smile. But then, as if he couldn't stop himself, he looked at Percy again. "H-how about you, Percy? Have you and… Annabeth?" he asked, faltering slightly on that last name. Percy could've sworn the air dropped ten degrees, too.  


Percy shifted uncomfortably, glancing over at Annabeth, whose hand trailed to her bead necklace. Nico noticed this and studied it carefully, noticing the white pearl, too. Several emotions flickered across his face before it was an unreadable mask and he looked at Percy again, waiting.  


"Well, no, not yet, but—" he began, and the others looked interested, too, but then there was an explosion.  


Nico's hand instantly went to his sword and he whirled around, but the others just sighed.  


"Leo," Jason explained to a partially alarmed, partially confused Nico di Angelo.  


A girl ran out of the woods towards the Hephaestus cabin, shouting something that couldn't quite be made out.  


"And that would be Calypso," Piper said.  


Nico frowned, "Calypso? Like.." He shook himself. "Nevermind," he decided. Percy couldn't help but think how adorable he looked when he was confused. But then he remembered that he had a girlfriend and then that he had a _girlfriend_.  


He stood there wondering where in Tartarus these thoughts had stirred from until Percy was snapped out of his revelry by a question asked by Jason which Percy was curious about too.  


"So what have you been doing all this time, Nico?"  


Nico paused for a moment, thinking.  


"Well," he began, "As I said, I was in the Underworld for the most part—about two years. Helping with getting the souls back in line. You wouldn't believe how out of whack it's been down there, what with the Doors being open so long…" He sighed, sounding tired, as if the mere thought of it was exhausting.  


"What about after that?" Hazel piped in.  


"Nico rubbed a hand over the back of his neck. "Well, I stayed in Florida for a while, right on the beach, by…. by the sea, but…" His voice trailed of and Percy could've sworn he glanced in his direction before he went on.  


"After that I was kind of all over for a while, up until a few days ago when that Gryphon attacked."  


"Gryphon attacked?" Hazel cut in, sounding alarmed. "Are you okay?"  


Nico tensed, looking down at his leg. "Yeah, mostly but… well, my leg's a little fucked up," he said rather bluntly.  


Hazel looked at him with a mildly surprised expression, as did everyone else. Percy blinked hard, wondering why he'd found that so hot.  


"Oh," Hazel said."  


"Well, I hope it's fine enough to play in Capture the Flag tonight," Percy cut in, not really sure why.  


Nico turned to him and raised an eyebrow. "Why? Think you can beat me, Jackson?"  


Percy laughed, relieved that he'd not been glared at, shouted at or bitten. (Well, maybe not the latter, but Percy didn't want to think about that).  


"You're on," he said.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this update took so long! ~~don't hurt me~~  
>  Anyway, though, I think you'll enjoy this one, if you catch my meaning. *wink wink*

After dinner everyone got ready for Capture the Flag. The healer assigned to Nico didn't seem to happy about him playing, but in the end she begrudgingly let him, because truth be told she was a little scared of the ghost king.  


Likewise, Nico didn't seem to particularly like being on the red team, but he didn't complain aloud, just with his expression. Especially when Annabeth pulled him over for debriefing.  


"Okay," she said. "So you know how everyone things Zeus's Fist is cursed?"  


"Yeah."  


"I was thinking we put the flag somewhere near it. Not too close or anything—that place kinda gives me the creeps, too—but close enough so where people won't think to look there."  


Nico's eyes kept flickering involuntarily to the pearl on Annabeth's necklace. He quickly looked back at her properly when she finished speaking. "That's a good idea," he said, because it was.  


Annabeth side. "Good," she said, as if she was pleased with him agreeing with her. "You wanna get it into position?"  


Nico shrugged. "Alright." And so he did. 

* * *

Percy and Jason figured they'd at least find the flag easily; after all, it was almost always in the same place.  
However, when they came near the spot, they found… nothing.  


Percy held up his sword wearily. "It could be a trap," he said to Jason. They were still far enough away so where they couldn't be he seen by any possible ambushers.  


After a brief conversation they decided to turn bak and send in a party to take the possible ambushers by surprise. Jason went back to organize that. Percy went to find the flag.  


He walked on for some minutes before he stopped abruptly. It was very quiet all of the sudden, (he would say "too quiet" but that would be cliche—and besides, there was still the sound of the wind in the trees and the occasional bird; it was just an overlaying silence).  


Then Percy realized where he was. Just a little ways further and he'd be…  


Yep, there it was: Zeus's Fist. Percy shuddered a little—this place kinda gave him the creeps.  


He looked around, and… the flag! There it was; right across the clearing.  


Percy started towards it without really thinking. He made it about halfway to Zeus's Fist before he was stopped by himself, but mostly by a voice.  


"You really didn't see me?" it said from the shadow of the big stack of boulders. Nico di Angelo stepped forward, his black Stygian Iron sword propped up on his shoulder.  


"Percy Jackson. Oblivious, as always," he said, smiling faintly, like he knew something Percy didn't.  


Percy frowned at these word. "What do you mean, 'like always'?" he asked, a little indignantly, but Nico just sighed.  


"Nothing," he said, quite coldly. He held out his sword, ready to attack. "Are we going to fight, or what?"  


Percy, somewhat frightened by the fact that Nico seemed so ready to attack him, quick drew up Riptide.  


"Are you sure this is a good idea with your leg—" Percy started but Nico, rolling his eyes, lunged forward with his good leg. Percy only just had time to block the attack with his sword.  


"Please," Nico said, wasting no time in attacking again; this time Percy parried the blow and swiped at Nico himself.  


"You really think this is the first time I've had to fight with an injury?" Nico went on, deflecting the blow with a flick of his sword.  
Percy breathed out a laugh. He guessed Nico had a point.  


This thought must have distracted him, because Nico dared forward and slammed the flat of his blade into Percy's side before the older demigod could react, knocking the wind out of him. Immediately afterward Nico grabbed hold of Percy's shirt collar and spun them around, throwing Percy a boulder and pointing the tip of his sword at Percy's throat, not letting go of his shirt.  


"Losing your touch, here, Jackson," Nico said musingly, as Percy fought to regain his breath—it had all happened so fast that Percy hadn't even had time to react.  


He blinked hard at Nico, whose eyes had darkened strangely. He looked for a second like he might actually kill Percy. Or maybe… something else. But no, that was probably just Percy's imagination.  


Quickly, after regaining his composure, Percy slammed his shoulder forward into Nico's left shoulder, causing him to stumble and then hiss as he was forced to put his weight on his bad leg, loosening his grip on Percy's shirt in the process.  


Percy used this opportunity to switch their positions, grabbing hold of Nico's shirt instead and slamming him into the rock.  


"Maybe, Percy said with a bit of a shrug, putting Riptide's blade up against the demigod's throat with a cocky grin.  


Nico blinked, a bit of a smile flickering across his own lips. "That wasn't fair," he said, the smile quickly turning to a frown. "You made me fall on my leg."  


"So?" Percy breathed, his heart rate picking up for some weird reason. He couldn't stop noticing how very close he was to Nico; how if he were to just lean forward another inch or two…  


It seemed like Nico realized it too, because his breathing had gotten noticeably heavier and his eyes had just flicked down to Percy's lips. And then his tongue darted out and slid over his own mouth, his teeth catching on his bottom lip for a fraction of a second, and watching this, Percy just kinda lost it.  


He very nearly dropped his sword as he leaned forward and pressed his mouth to Nico's, parting his lips almost instantly. Nico actually did drop hiss word, whether from shock or from lack of attention he couldn't ever remember. All he knew was that he was opening his lips and that Percy's tongue was in his mouth and that he was _kissing Percy Jackson!_  


He fought the urge to pull away just to shout, "I kissed Percy Jackson! I kissed Percy Jackson!" over and over again but thought better of it. 

Instead he settled for grabbing a fistful of Percy's hair and deepening the kiss.  
Percy's thought process consisted mostly of "fuck"s and "oh gods"s and "What the hell! I'm not gay so why is this so freaking awesome"s, mixed with the occasion al "What if someone sees?"  


In the back of his mind he wondered what would happen if Annabeth were to see him right now. He felt pretty guilty at that thought.  
Then Nico bit down on his lip and gave it a hard suck and Percy's mind went blank.  


This didn't last much longer because a few minutes later Jason's voice shouted, "Percy! Nico!" and they pulled apart with a jump, Percy hastily making it look as though he'd pinned Nico to the rock with his sword and not his mouth.  


"Where have you guys been?" Jason asked, running up to them along with Hazel and… and Annabeth. "Percy, you were supposed to come back and get us when you found the flag. The game's over now," Jason went on, sounding a little crestfallen.  


"Sorry," Percy said, sheepishly rubbing a hand over the back of his neck, avoiding everyone's gaze; especially Annabeth's. Gods, what had he done? "We lost track of time."  


He was glad it was dark now because he could practically feel Nico blushing next to him. And besides that, Percy was pretty sure he'd given 

Nico at least fifty love bites on his neck, not to mention the one on Percy's lip.  


"It's alright," Jason said, with a little shrug, and Percy could swear he flashed a grin at Nico.  


"We'd better get back to the cabins," Annabeth said, walking over to Percy and giving him a kiss on the cheek. He wished she hadn't; it made him feel even more guilty, but he let her take his hand all the same.  


They made their way back in mostly silence, and the last thing Percy heard before they all parted ways was Hazel saying something like, "Nico, what's that on your neck?"  


Hopefully everyone else had been out of earshot.

**Author's Note:**

> So? What did you think? Was I too out of character? [[also on tumblr](http://triptolemos.tumblr.com/tagged/tya)]


End file.
